Here, diverting and diverse as ever, is another platter of intellectual not so dim sum from a master chef. Anthony Grayling's mysterious Things may taste much the same as the Things he's grilled already for their Reason and Meaning, but who cares? Anyone prepared to try to explain 'The Origins of the Universe' in 600 words commands a certain awed respect.

Grayling has three great gifts. He roams far beyond his central philosophy brief. He is wonderfully prolific. And he writes with a wry, crafted simplicity. Maybe the 56 or so mini-diversions in this slim collection don't quite live up to their thematic conjunction at some mystic point where art, history and science intersect. Nevertheless, there's a tolerable tidiness to the eternal triangle he constructs.

Fair enough. These 'samples, hints and sketches' are, indeed, 'a service to the conversation of mankind about the variety of humanity's investigations into the world and itself' and arguably, therefore, 'one duty of the philosopher'. Why bring the 'genius of Shakespeare', the Rosetta Stone, the fall of Berlin and alien abductions together in a single volume? Well, why not, if it works?

Some of the little dumplings, to be sure, lose most of their flavour the moment you know enough to write an alternative recipe. Grayling doesn't understand The Winter's Tale and is frankly not much of a witness on Shake speare in general. His defence of the film director as artist - 'a well-rehearsed orchestra could perform without its conductor, but a film could not be made without its director' - is as banal as the stock catalogue of such cinematic artists he cites. Too many dollops of portent - like 'Freud, Moses and Edward W.Said' - are really only warmed-over book reviews without much value added.

Parody, inevitably perhaps, lurks just over the horizon. What's the Meaning of Grayling, Daddy? The shadow of the pseud rampant makes that inevitable. But because it's inevitable, it can also be brushed to one side, a mild irritant rather than fatal flaw. Grayling is crisply interesting on cities and architecture, especially Norman Foster's bulbous Tumescence (or Baltic Exchange 'Gherkin') and Testicle (Ken Livingstone's Tower Bridge HQ). He tells you why Carthage fell and how Hannibal got his elephants over the Alps. He is especially good when he gets to science and his need to explain is also a need to understand for himself.

Some of these Things are pure Reader's Digest and some are matters about as profound as it's possible to go in short form. Deep down, contemplating the future of life on earth, he's a pessimist, but he exalts 'reason and kindness' over 'superstitions, tribalism, greed and a fear' any day of the week. And, 'like the pianist still playing as the ship sinks', he gives hope a chance. The Meaning of Grayling is that, in the end, mystery falls away, just one of those things. In the end, it is possible to shine light in the darkest corners. In the end, moreover, it is a kindly light.

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